The use of optical networks can dramatically increase the amount of information, such as telephone, video and Internet information, that can be communicated between network users as compared to traditional networks. Such an optical network can, for example, connect a number of terminal stations through a number of parallel optical fibers. When a user at a first terminal station wants to transmit information to a user at a second terminal station, the information is transmitted through one of the optical fibers with a dedicated wavelength of light.
The user at the first terminal station may also want to simultaneously transmit information to a number of different users located at a number of different terminal stations. Moreover, users at a number of different terminal stations may want to transmit information to each other simultaneously. Creating a network that lets all users communicate with all other users simultaneously, however, tends to increase the number of optical fibers that must be used in the network. Unfortunately, each additional optical fiber that is used can be very expensive to install and maintain. In addition, some networks need to be fully “restorable,” meaning that each user can still communicate with each other user when any one of the optical fibers fail. This also tends to increase the number of optical fibers required in the network.
One way to reduce the number of optical fibers in a network is to use Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM). In a WDM network, a set of wavelengths, such as λ1, λ2 . . . λn, are used so that several communications can be simultaneously transmitted over a single optical fiber using different wavelengths. To increase the amount of information that can be transmitted over the network, and to reduce the cost of optical transmitters, receivers and routers, it is desirable to keep the number of different wavelengths used in the network as small as possible.
In addition, to avoid interference in the network a single wavelength should not be used to simultaneously transmit different information over the same optical fiber in the same direction. Moreover, it may be necessary to amplify one or more signals being transmitted over an optical fiber in the network. In this case, it is desirable that information is not simultaneously transmitted over the same optical fiber using the same wavelength, even if the transmissions are in opposite directions.
In view of the foregoing, it can be appreciated that a substantial need exists for an optical network architecture that reduces the number of optical fibers and wavelengths used in the network and solves the other problems discussed above.